Yavapai County tops state in search-and-rescue

Sheriff’s units perform 22% of all missions in Arizona

YCSO Search and Rescue’s Dan Hughart lowers himself from the second floor of the Prescott Valley Event Center as part of the displays from first responders at the Salute to Heroes event Sunday, April 24, 2016.

Among the approximately 350 volunteers who make up these teams is Dan Hughart. He’s a member of the Backcountry unit, Swiftwater Rescue team, and the helicopter aircrew.

The 26-year-old has been involved with the SAR teams for five years.

He’s a busy man.

“Between Thursday (July 14) at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 4 p.m., I had worked 40 hours of search and rescue,” he said.

He spends his own money to equip himself for the missions, a fairly large expense, and training costs time and money as well.

But it’s worth it, he said, recalling a September 2015 rescue in which a hiker fell in the Granite Basin area, impaling himself on an agave plant.

“I flew up with (a DPS helicopter) to a location near the subject, and made contact,” he said. “He was laying down, pretty much immobile,” with puncture wounds in his chest.

“I prepared the victim for a short-haul extraction,” which means the injured man would be carried in a Stokes basket below the helicopter by a rope, along with Hughart dangling beside him.

“They came in and picked us up and flew us to (Granite Basin) Lake,” where a medical helicopter was waiting.

The time and expense are worth it, he said, when they save a life.

“It’s all about the look and the expression of gratitude we get when we rescue someone or find somebody,” Hughart said. “Just that good feeling that, these people, as soon as they see you, the relief on their face that they instantly have.”